Simple Ways to Make Your Event More Green

Living in Bali, every day we come face to face with the consequences of bad waste management. We've always made a huge effort to make our events as ‘trash free’ as possible. One of those ways is to make sure our attendees don't need to bring or buy the dreaded one-use plastic Aqua bottle. 

We do this by providing each guest something to drink from, like these glasses below from Bali Recycling, and free refills of water using Kopernik's Nazava water filters throughout the venue. 

For past events, we've also given each guest a metal water bottle...

...or provided them with a bamboo cup—freshly cut bamboo gently sanded so it was ‘lip friendly’. 

We've also teamed up with Jenggala Ceramics to do a limited-edition mug for each guest to use at the event and then take home. 

We recommend looking into the Avani line of products, including compostable paper cups for hot drinks and wooden spoons and forks. They go perfectly with the traditional Balinese ingke we use as plates, which are lined with fresh banana leaves. 

If you'd like to work with us to go even more ‘radically green’ for your next event and help save this beautiful island we call home, get in touch!

8 Favorite Tools to Coordinate Event Communications

It all boils down to good communication, whether externally with attendees or internally with the team and our partners. We have a few apps and tools we swear by to minimize the chaos and crossed wires of event life. And of course, they're all mobile-friendly because our phones are our lifelines. 

1. WhatsApp

Such an amazing tool for both pre-production and event day. You can send files and photos, locations, voice notes and more. We create different groups based on tasks and needs. It's a brilliant and fast way to get volunteers onto a problem quickly on the day and to share pictures from different areas of the venue. And you'll never have the 'missing email' problem with this app. 

2. Todoist

For assigning tasks and checking them off. Great for core team duties and keeping track of what's left to do. 

3. Dropbox Sign

This one is a must for contracts and making sure both parties have copies and details of their obligations. 

4. Zello Walkie Talkie

Zello is a free push-to-talk application for smartphones and tablets. It's lightweight, easy to use and extremely fast. Just push the button to talk. You most likely won't have to configure anything to start using it.

5. Airtime

Airtime is another great way to communicate within teams. It’s like Apple’s FaceTime but with the added bonus that you can have up to six participants on one video call.

The screen is split so you can see everybody who’s on the call and you can set up named groups with pre-defined members. When you need to consult your team, simply hit the Signal button to bring everyone together. (via Eventbrite)

6. Dropbox

An obvious one, but we couldn't leave it out. Great for sharing assets like logos, promo pictures, site plans, sponsor packages, speaker packages, and rundowns. Everything lives in our team folder and gets accessed within seconds across devices. 

7. Ummo

Coaching speakers is a big part of the job of a TEDx Curator. This app helps our speakers to hone their presentation skills.

It acts like a virtual speech coach, analyzing the speech as you talk for pace, word power, clarity, and filler words like “ums”, “ahs”, “like” and “kind of”.

Speakers can press the record button, deliver their speech and then see how many words per minute they were talking on average. Then drill down and see how the speed altered throughout – kept a steady pace or started rushing? Ummo also gives a percentage score for clarity and lets the speakers set their own filler words and phrases for tracking.

8. Thumbly Keyboard

A phone keyboard that can be used one-handed! The app uses fast, gesture-based, controls to help you navigate the keyboard and autocorrect with one hand, and it’s really efficient.